Delicious Distraction

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"Is that... food? Everyone smuggled food down here!? Unbelievable! You guys put our lives in danger because you couldn't go without a snack for a day!? You are all... awful! [stomach growls] So hungry... is that... egg custard in that tart?"

Hunger is a very powerful force. A starving person may degrade themselves for a scrap of food; a hedonist will do so for a teaspoon of cous cous. Mmm... deliciouscous cous. Even a person with a full stomach may have a hard time resisting a marvelously mouthwatering meal or morsel.

Much like characters with Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!, these characters are distracted by something delicious, like a freshly baked, moist, sweet delectable apple pie cooling on a window sill...* drools* * cough*

This can be used as a "soft" Achilles' Heel against gluttonous characters (or anyone, provided the bait dessert is good enough) that can do anything from distract, bribe, or completely sidetrack a given character for up to an hour (or more, if the tempter is a cook with a fully stocked kitchen). In cartoons, this may be enough to stop a predator/enemy in their tracks, in other media, the sleeping dust/amnesia powder sprinkled over the glazing does the trick.

May happen just by looking at it, smelling it, and in powerful instances from mere memory or having it be described... like that time I had this delicious just-baked and still warm pineapple empanada, with a gold crust that was still crisp yet unburnt,and the filling with small chunks of pineapple still discernible when you chewed,* drool*

Examples:

All-State's "Mayhem" has one commercial where Mayhem plays a dog guarding a house being robbed. They've placated him with a bone, demonstrating how an Angry Guard Dog could be easily avoided.

As countless Hostess ads in comic books taught us back in the Bronze Age, any supervillain can be distracted by the light flaky crust and delicious fruit filling of Hostess cakes. Really, all super heroes ought to carry a few packs of them.

In Dragon Ball Z, Goku and Vegeta are fighting evil clones of Piccolo, Gohan, and Gotenks. Majin Buu, however, comes across a store full of cakes at that exact moment... turning the clone fighters inside Buu into cake, letting Goku and Vegeta pass.

Metalseadramon's henchman Scorpiomon loves clams, so much that it distracts him long enough for Togemon and Ikkakumon to digivolve and finish him off.

This was found to be a subversion in the next episode, since the snacks Karasawa threw to the girls were all expired. Bullying continues.

In Axis Powers Hetalia Canada at one point attaches a note that reads "There is food inside" to a package in an effort to trick America into opening it. The last panel of the comic shows America desperately trying to restrain himself.

There's also a comic where Rome is shown daydreaming about food and women while bored during a meeting.

In Fushigi Yuugi, this is used against Miaka by the bad guys (and Taiitsukun) more than once. It works every time, because Miaka literally cannot control herself around food.

Comic Books

In one issue of Pinky and the Brain, the titular duo need to steal lemons from a private garden as part of their scheme to Take Overthe World. It's guarded by Angry Guard Dogs, but Brain has a bag full of steaks handy. The problem is that there are more dogs than steaks.

In the original novel, they didn't have an excess special effects budget to be showing off, so they just set them on the banisters by the stairs, to exactly the same effect. At least that's only mildly stupid.

In The Rock, Sean Connery's character has the hotel room service deliver a full spread of snacks to distract the FBI agents that are supposed to be keeping an eye on him while he enacts his scheme to escape and meet up with his daughter.

The easiest way to get B.A. Baracus in The A-Team to calm down and stay out of your hair is to give him a plate of Murdock's coconut curry tapenade. Just don't forget the toasties.

During the extended version opening of Fellowship of the Ring (well, second opening; during the Concerning Hobbits scene), a hobbit-maid is about to kiss her hobbit-lover, who is distracted by a basket of muffins going around and eats it instead. At the exact same moment, Bilbo narrates that "a Hobbit's only true love is for food."

In Beverly Hills Cop, Axel Foley successfully distracts a pair of cops on a long stakeout by sending over a lavish dinner, and uses the opportunity to sabotage their car so they can't follow him later. He does it again against the two protagonist cops, but this time only uses the distraction to introduce himself.

In The Lion King Simba, Nala, Timon, and Pumbaa have to get past Scar's hyenas who are very hungry from food shortage in order to sneak back in the Pride Lands, they use Timon and Pumbaa to distract them with Timon dressed as a hula dancer and Pumbaa as a roasted pig on a plate.

In Live and Let Die, James Bond gets stranded in an alligator infested swamp. He finds a bucket of chicken meat and throws them at the approaching gators, but soon runs out and has to escape them.

Live Action TV

Pushing Daisies has this happen to the aunts, when their niece custom bakes them a cheese coated pie. And of course, it had mood elevating drugs baked in.

Jimmy from Reefer Madness: The MovieMusical starts ranting at his drug dealer about how he's done smoking pot, and nothing can change his mind, but gets sidetracked shortly after the dealer offers him a brownie. Admittedly, it was a pot brownie, but Jimmy didn't know that before he dropped his argument to eat it.

Cake Boss Buddy Valastro gave Cookie Monster a large cookie cake, because he loves him. As a bonus, it kept Cookie away from Buddy's main project: a 40th anniversary Sesame Street cake.

Cookie Monster: Me prayers have been answered!

Appears on Top Gear's Polar Special (the three presenters' attempt to reach the magnetic north pole). After a particularly stressful day, James May distracts Jeremy Clarkson with various gourmet foods and (awesomely) a bottle of Chablis, all of which he has somehow brought along without his friend noticing.

On those occasions on Hogan's Heroes when Schultz does not know nothing, he can be bribed with food to know nothing.

Tested and confirmed on Mythbusters, in regards to distracting an Angry Guard Dog with meat. However, it was noted that it is possible (though not easy) to train a guard dog to ignore such distractions.

In the episode "Earshot", while searching for a student that they suspect is about to enact a school shooting at Sunnydale High, Xander is distracted by some Jello while passing through the cafeteria. Which leads him to the person who's really planning to murder a bunch of students: the lunch lady, whom he catches dumping rat poison into the mulligan stew.

In the spin-off Angel, Cordelia Chase has just rescued her Bound and Gagged friends from being executed. She stretches out her arms for a Group Hug, only for them to rush past her and tuck into the food.

Ron, from Season 18 of The Amazing Race. Several times he lost his concentration, even mid-task, and tried to get his daughter to stop to get food.

In the episode "Hollywood Babylon" of Supernatural, Dean is distracted by miniature Philly cheesesteaks on the craft table when Sam attempts to discuss the case they are investigating.

In the Breaking Bad episode, "I See You," after Hank gets shot, Gus Fring uses a personal delivery of fried chicken to the hospital where Hank is recovering to distract the cops while Mike Ehrmantraut kills the surviving would-be-assassin to keep him from ratting Gus out to the police or to Juan Bolsa.

In one episode of Married... with Children Bud spends most of the episode trying to get past a hotel doorman to see an old high-school flame, who's now a celebrity, but keeps getting thrown him out. On one attempt, a fat, middle-aged woman from another room sees and grabs him. (What happens off-screen is best left to the imagination.) Later, Bud gets an idea; he gets rid of the doorman by luring him next to the same woman's room using a table with a hamburger, making sure that she grabs him. (Unfortunately, while he manages to talk to his old flame for a few minutes, the guard is 'very'' angry when he comes out.)

In the Lucky Starr series, David tries to distract some sentient alien form of life by throwing them something they consider a delicacy. The degree of success is one of the hints that they might not be that sentient after all...

Redwall characters will reminisce rhapsodically about food whenever they aren't actually sitting down to a sumptuous feast, but the robin from Mossflower has to take the cake for this trope because he operated solely on food-based bribery.

In Thief of Time, chocolate proves itself to be a Deadly Delicious Distraction, for Auditors that are new to having human bodies or taste buds. At one point, the mere scent of a single piece of high-end chocolate candy sets a mob of them to fighting one another, and the sole survivor's body disintegrates from sheer bliss upon eating it.

In Unseen Academicals, Glenda uses scrumptious pies to bribe her way past Lord Vetinari's security guards. Subverted in that Vetinari'd ordered the guards to accept any bribes regardless of their value or quality; played with in that he scolds his aide for having the pies disposed of, uneaten: he knew Glenda's grandmother from her time as a cook at the Assassin's Guild, and neither she nor her granddaughter would dream of fouling a recipe with poison.

Ax from Animorphs. Oh, Ax from Animorphs. Andalites don't have mouths or tongues, so Ax in human morph is positively overwhelmed by the sense of taste.

Do NOT get between Ax and a cinnamon roll. You will bleed.

Every Andalite who adopts a human morph. By the end of the series, Andalite tour groups visit Earth just to sample human cuisine.

At one point in Take A Thief, Skif bypasses some guard dogs with a cross between this trope and Slipping a Mickey. He mixes chopped meat with bread crumbs soaked in poppy juice, stuffs the concoction into sausage casings, and tosses them over the wall.

Galaxy of Fear: Eaten Alive: The better to tempt visitors to relax and stay, the Enzeen have a habit of providing all visitors with free food, lots of it, all very good. Most visitors immediately trust them, but this is subverted with Tash, whose latent Force-Sensitivity gives her a bad feeling about the whole thing. The food is actually just fine, simply used to help visitors feel at ease so they can be eaten themselves later with less fuss.

Music Video

The promo film for "Happy Jack" by The Who has the band as a gang of Blatant Burglars who sneak into an apartment and start trying to break into the safe... only to be quickly distracted when their lookout discovers a lovely cake.

Tabletop Games

There is a spell in Dungeons & Dragons called "Illusory Feast" that creates a feast that seems to have their favourite foods and is real as far as natural senses can tell. Causes foes that aren't actively involved in fighting to drop what they're doing and indulge. Foes that are fighting are slightly dazed.

Chrononauts, the card game of time travel, includes an artifact from the 1939' Berlin World's Fair: a delicious slice of German Cake. You can use it during another player's turn to distract them and cancel whatever it is they were about to do.

In Munchkin, you can acquire an item called "Rat On A Stick" which you can use to distract monsters and avoid fighting them.

Theatre

In 1776, John Adams is briefly distracted from haranguing Big Eater Samuel Chase for a vote on independence by the contents of his plate.

"What's that, kidney?" [Chase slaps his hand away.]

Video Games

In Team Fortress 2, Heavy Weapons Guy's Sandvich proves to be one in-game. Loudly chomping down OM NOM NOM, he cannot react if someone attacks him while eating his Sandvich. Woe betide Heavy if there is an enemy Spy around or a Sniper gets a fix on him.

In Dragon Age: Origins, the templar charged with making sure no one visits the Abomination infested Circle Tower can be bribed with cookies provided by Sten. Cookies that Sten stole from a fat slovenly child — for his own good, of course.

When fighting The Fear in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, his stealth camo will drain his stamina extremely fast. When it gets low, he'll shoot down some convenient fruit, gobble it down, and continue the fight. He is very vulnerable during this time, but can't actually be stopped from eating the fruit (he'll keep moving no matter what you shoot him with). However, you can throw your own food, some of which may be poisoned, and he'll go for that instead, as it is more convenient.

In Amnesia: The Dark Descent, you can buy time from the invisible monster in the water by tossing body parts for it to devour instead. Preferably as far away from where you need to be as possible.

Penumbra, made by the same developer as Amnesia, also uses this mechanic. You can find packets of beef jerky and toss them at the various zombified dogs before they see you, allowing you to either kill them in a Sneak Attack, or simply run away while they're distracted. However, the second game, Black Plague, throws this and all weapon mechanics out the window in favor of pure survival and stealth skills.

He is making shrimp in a chili sauce. The shrimp looks so scrumptious... My mouth is watering.

In the Monster Hunter series, one can leave a piece of meat on the ground, which might entice a large monster into snacking on it, leaving them open to attacks while they eat and also possibly paralyzing them, poisoning them, or putting them to sleep if you combined it with something beforehand. Exactly how effective it is varies from monster to monster, some of them being cautious and only doing so while no hunters are in sight, while others will go for it even if they're being attacked.

In Dishonored, you can distract rats by throwing corpses at them. That way, they won't attack you until they finish eating.

Webcomics

Archipelago's Blitz when King Mikel playfully switches his crown for Blitz's hat.

Saves the day in the first interlude for Cucumber Quest, when Carrot and Nautilus give into the temptation of the train's huge breakfast cart while searching for a bomb... that turns out to be underneath it.

Web Original

In the Not Safe for Work web series-thingy(?) Felarya has many of the giants get distracted by prey, usually done for comedic affect, oddly enough.

A couple of guys trying to distract the watchout in Doomsday Arcade successfully distracted him by using a 'Free Sandwiches' sign.

WoW-based comedy series Illegal Danish involves the characters Rasi and Basutei traveling to Ashenvale for apparently nothing but a vending machine. Rasi is annoyed, but Basutei is overjoyed, and launches into his own little commercial when he sees the machine is stocked with "Goblin Cakes." He then breaks open the machine and starts stuffing his face until Rasi throws the machine off the tower.

Subverted when Homer tries to distract an Angry Guard Dog chasing Bart with a steak. The dog eats the steak in one bite and doesn't slow down at all.

Homer: Faster, son! He's got a taste for meat now!

Subverted in a Treehouse of Horror episode, when Homer is being chased by Ned Flanders' guard dogs. (It Makes Sense in Context) He pulls out a large string of sausages:

Homer: I know! [Pulls out string of sausages] These wieners will give me the quick energy I need to escape! [Homer eats them and suddenly speeds up, leaving the dogs in the dust]

Played straight and parodied during The Cat's burglary spree. Santa's Little Helper growls at the intruder, who quiets him with a string of sausages. In comes a sleepwalking Homer, who also growls at The Cat... who also quiets him with another string of sausages.

Futurama: When Bender comes across an angry guard dog he pulls out a huge steak... he then proceeds to knock the dog unconscious with it and eats the steak himself.

Scooby-Doo and Scooby Snacks. Though Shaggy and Scooby are afraid of their own shadow, all it takes is a little bribery with the snacks to get them to agree to do something scary Once per Episode.

In "Rarity Investigates" the pony responsible for framing Rainbow Dash uses a cake to distract the guards long enough to let them plant the evidence against Rainbow.

Real Life

Truth in Television, in relation to predators. Since they're usually motivated by hunger, leaving an easier meal close by can distract them long enough to allow you to escape. Even a vicious guard dog can be tempted from duty by a nice steak (better hope you can run faster than it can eat, though). Of course a guard dog can be trained not to be distracted this way....

So goes the old campfire warning - I don't need to outrun the bear; I just need to outrun you.

The FBI pulled a variation of this on a notorious Mafioso. He conducted all his business in a junkyard, which the FBI could never approach to bug because of the vicious guard dogs. Agents came by every night for weeks and fed the dogs over the fence with steaks. Finally, the dogs grew to like the Agents and allowed them onto the property, where the Agents were able to plant a microphone and get the evidence they needed. To make the story truly hilarious, the agents returned to confront the Mobster and get him to turn State's Evidence but he laughed them off, claiming there was no way they could have bugged his office. Until the dogs came over and licked the Agent's hand. He flipped immediately.

The KGB did the same trick while breaking into an embassy guarded by a large dog. The only problem was the agent feeding the dog kept calling for more steaks.

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